Tyler Zeller, who played in 6 games last season with the Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies, has signed a training camp deal with the Denver Nuggets in order to fight for a roster spot per Chris Dempsey of Altitude Sports.
The #Nuggets have signed center Tyler Zeller to the training camp roster. Zeller played 6 games last season with Atlanta and Memphis. Nuggets camp starts on Oct. 1.
— Chris Dempsey (@chrisadempsey) September 19, 2019
It will likely be an uphill battle for Zeller as the team already has two firmly entrenched options at the five in Mason Plumlee and MVP Finalist Nikola Jokic.
Zeller has been in the league for 7 seasons, playing for 6 different teams during that time including the Hawks, Grizz, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets.
His greatest NBA success likely came with the Boston Celtics in 2014-15 when he played in all 82 games and started 59 contests for Boston.
For the Nuggets, Zeller will likely find it difficult to break into a fairly steady frontcourt rotation that added Jerami Grant this offseason to an already formidable combination of Jokic, Plumlee, Paul Millsap, Jarred Vanderbilt and Juan Hernangomez.
Combine that with rookies Michael Porter Jr. and Bol Bol and frontcourt minutes might be hard to come by. Of course, Bol will likely sit out the year due to injury concerns – just as MPJ did one season prior – and Zeller could always be retained as an injury replacement.
Zeller is one of three brothers who made it to the NBA. Tyler’s older brother Luke played for the Suns for one season and his younger brother Cody has been with the Charlotte Hornets since they were the Bobcats in 2013-14.
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